 |
Web
sites
that work!
by
Jim Peterson
|
Your
Web site is speaking volumes about you, and your company.
What is it saying?
Tom Ralston's Web site is a winner.
Tom Ralston Concrete, located in Santa Cruz, Calif., offers
a variety of concrete and masonry services.
At www.tomralstonconcrete.com, the visitor
immediately sees Ralston's decorative concrete showroom and
the concrete paving surrounding the showroom. The result is
immediate credibility. Most decorative concrete contractors
don't have showrooms.
Next on the site is a comprehensive
navigation bar that outlines many of the services offered
by Tom Ralston Concrete. The navigation bar categorizes those
services: concrete countertops, pool decks, and interior concrete,
for example. This breakdown is critical because site visitors
may not know what they want or whether they need staining
or stamped concrete. What they do know is they want a pool
deck or an interior floor. It is important to communicate,
not just in our own industry-centered language but in the
language of the customer, whether that customer is a homeowner
or a general contractor looking for a concrete sub.
Another navigation bar category tells
about Tom Ralston himself and the history of his company.
It is important to talk about yourself, or others in your
company to convey the personality of the company. Potential
customers are looking for a personal touch, a connection they
deal with enough faceless corporations each day.
Presenting
your personality is particularly important when marketing
decorative concrete. A large part of the appeal of concrete
countertops, interior concrete floors, and stamped concrete
pool decks, patios, and driveways, is that these are craft
products. Buyers enjoy the interaction with the craftsperson.
So show your personality! If you don't give any details about
yourself, it makes people wonder if you don't have anything
to say about yourself.
Still another important category on
the Tom Ralston Concrete Web site is his press archive. Articles
in various magazines such as CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION and Sunset
Magazine show Ralston as an industry leader.
Tom Ralston's Web site gets the job
done in several important ways. The site serves customers
by making it easy to find what they are interested in. It
uses language that potential customers understand and presents
the firm's personality. It shows Ralston's firm as an experienced
industry leader.
Another company with an effective
Web site is Colorado Hardscapes. At www.coloradohardscapes.com
visitors immediately know that they have discovered a professional
company. The August 2003 recent projects section of its Web
site includes a spectacular concrete wall and sand finish
pool deck it built at Village at Five Parks in Arvada, Colo.
Easy to navigate, the Colorado Hardscapes
Web site also shows off its decorative concrete showroom and
classifies the concrete applications it offers: commercial,
municipal, residential, and theming (checkout the 350-foot-long
sea creature built at the Arvada Center for the Art and' Humanities).
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